


spring herself

by fullmetalruby



Series: febslash fembruary [8]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/F, Femslash February 2021, Trans Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Trans Female Character, tangentially anyways
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-14 19:54:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29301492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fullmetalruby/pseuds/fullmetalruby
Summary: “Blanche.”“Hm. Too punny. Giselle.”“Nah. Claudette. Get it? Claw-dette?”“That’s even worse, Chatte. Minette.”Chatte wrinkles her nose. “It’s too close to a girl in my class.”Ladybug drops the list to her side, a bit frustrated, but also a bit relieved. As much as she loves her minette, she’s glad that Chatte didn’t go for it. It’s only a syllable off from her own name.[Femslash February 2021 | Day 8 | Coffee Shop AU}
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: febslash fembruary [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2139714
Comments: 5
Kudos: 94





	spring herself

**Author's Note:**

> so this is a coffee shop au in that we are pretending the dupain-cheng boulangerie patisserie is also a cafe. 
> 
> also, no we are not getting through fsf without at least 1 trans fic. heres 1/?
> 
> title comes from "There Will Come Soft Rains" by Sara Teasdale

“Blanche.”

“Hm. Too punny. Giselle.”

“Nah. Claudette. Get it?  _ Claw _ -dette?”

“That’s even  _ worse _ , Chatte. Minette.”

Chatte wrinkles her nose. “It’s too close to a girl in my class.”

Ladybug drops the list to her side, a bit frustrated, but also a bit relieved. As much as she loves her  _ minette _ , she’s glad that Chatte didn’t go for it. It’s only a syllable off from her own name. “That was the last one I had. I can have more tomorrow. Did any of them even come close?”

“I want something with a cool meaning. How pretentious would it be if I called myself ‘Phoenix’?” Chatte’s normally smooth voice mangles-- probably on purpose, knowing her-- the English pronunciation. “Or something out of a show?”

“Grizabella.” 

Chatte laughs. “I’ll put it on the list!” She stands. Logically, Ladybug knows that Chatte’s long hair is a product of the transformation, and it will disappear when she transforms on her way home, but she can’t help admiring how the lights play off her curls. From above, the moon is making her hair shine silver, and the streetlamps below are painting her in sepia tones. Ladybug couldn’t have composed it better herself. “One of my friends actually suggested a nice one today. Do you want to hear it?”

Ladybug stands, knowing that without anything else on their docket and the city safe for the night, she has no other reason to not go home and get what sleep she can. Looking back later, she’ll blame the sleep deprivation and finals week for what she says. “I work at a cafe in the 21st arrondissement. Come and tell me there.”

Chatte looks at her like she hung the stars. “You mean…”

“I’m hard to miss. You get long, pretty hair in your transformation, but I look pretty much the same. Just without the mask.”

“But what if you don’t know it’s me?” Chatte cries.

Ladybug shrugs. Wear something green. In your hair. How many cute blondes wearing green hair pieces do you think I see in a day? I’ll wear spots. Just to be sure you can tell.”

* * *

Miscalculation #1: there are a lot of cute blondes who pass through the boulangerie every day.

Miscalculation #2: it’s spring, so there are a lot of people wearing bright green.

_ This is fine _ , Marinette thinks, watching Green-Wearing Blonde Number Twenty Four of the day walk away with her coffee. It is, in no way, fine, but she grins and bears through another tourist ordering in a mixture of poor French and weird English. She nods through what she thinks is a compliment to her dress-- red with black spots.

Eventually she sends the girl’s drink off, and when she returns to the register she sees there her classmate, blonde and in the same style as Chatte used to wear, dressed in white capris and a black blouse, with a lime-green Chat Noir headband, complete with little cat ears.

Her classmate is looking at her.  _ Chatte _ , in full civilian glory, with the same stars in her eyes as Marinette saw the other night on the rooftop. Her grin is infectious.

“Hello,  _ minette _ ,” Marinette greets casually. Just to confirm, because she knows how her kitty worries. “What can I get for you?”

Chatte’s grin gets even wider. “Whatever you think I’d like.”

Marinette scrawls down the Black Cat Special, a drink she’d created after Chatte whined that  _ there’s a drink at my local cafe that’s named after Ladybug but there’s no drink named after me, my lady, the people hate me _ . Chatte had been joking, but Marinette had come up with a little something anyways.

“And what’s the name for that?”

“Renée.”

Marinette makes the drink as fast as she can, then calls out to her mother that she’s taking a break. She joins Renée at the window, and gives her her drink.

“It’s a lovely name,” she says. “What does it mean?”

“‘Born again.’ Nino came up with it.” Renée is speaking with her Chatte voice, which is loftier than the voice Marinette is used to hearing from the face behind the mask, but she can’t help but decide it fits better.

“It suits you.”

Renée flushes. That, too, suits her.

“Can I let you in on a secret,  _ minette _ ?”

Leaning in conspiratorially, Renée nods.

Marinette also leans in. “Ever since you got the new suit I’ve been  _ dying _ to put you in skirts. Do you want to come see my designs?”

“Only of course, my lady.”

**Author's Note:**

> if i had it in me right now to write anything longer than this there would be about 5k more of identity shenanigans, because i cannot stress how much they both write off anything they have in common as happenstance. realistically marinette would watch her kitty walk into the shop and just think "wow my classmate is wearing the same thing as i asked chat to wear! funky" and move on with her day waiting for chat while chat is right fucking there thinking "wow marinette is wearing spots and has her hair in pigtails just like ladybug! what a coincidence" and then stare wistfully out the window waiting for ladybug to show up for her shift.
> 
> check me out on tumblr @fullmetalruby


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